EP2545401B1 - Régulation des profils du dopant pour des modulateurs optiques en silicium à grande vitesse - Google Patents

Régulation des profils du dopant pour des modulateurs optiques en silicium à grande vitesse Download PDF

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Publication number
EP2545401B1
EP2545401B1 EP11753780.3A EP11753780A EP2545401B1 EP 2545401 B1 EP2545401 B1 EP 2545401B1 EP 11753780 A EP11753780 A EP 11753780A EP 2545401 B1 EP2545401 B1 EP 2545401B1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
silicon
layer
region
silicon body
optical
Prior art date
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Not-in-force
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EP11753780.3A
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German (de)
English (en)
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EP2545401A2 (fr
EP2545401A4 (fr
Inventor
Mark Webster
Vipulkumar Patel
Prakash Gothoskar
David Piede
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Cisco Technology Inc
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Cisco Technology Inc
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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G02—OPTICS
    • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
    • G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
    • G02B6/10—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings of the optical waveguide type
    • G02B6/12—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings of the optical waveguide type of the integrated circuit kind
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G02—OPTICS
    • G02F—OPTICAL DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF LIGHT BY MODIFICATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIA OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED THEREIN; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING OF LIGHT; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS
    • G02F1/00—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics
    • G02F1/01—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the intensity, phase, polarisation or colour 
    • G02F1/015—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the intensity, phase, polarisation or colour  based on semiconductor elements having potential barriers, e.g. having a PN or PIN junction
    • G02F1/025—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the intensity, phase, polarisation or colour  based on semiconductor elements having potential barriers, e.g. having a PN or PIN junction in an optical waveguide structure
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G02—OPTICS
    • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
    • G02B26/00—Optical devices or arrangements for the control of light using movable or deformable optical elements
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G02—OPTICS
    • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
    • G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
    • G02B6/24—Coupling light guides
    • G02B6/26—Optical coupling means

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a high speed silicon-based optical modulator and, more particularly, to a high speed silicon-based optical modulator with control of the dopant profiles in the body and gate regions of the device to reduce the series resistance without incurring substantial optical power loss.
  • modulator permits relatively high speed operation (in excess of 10 Gb/s) by virtue of its "overlapped", cantilevered configuration of a doped polysilicon layer and a doped SOI layer, with a thin dielectric disposed in the overlap region.
  • SISCAP silicon-insulator-silicon capacitance
  • US 7,085,443 discloses a high speed optical modulators made of a lateral PN diode formed in a silicon optical waveguide, disposed on a SOI or other silicon based substrate.
  • a PN junction is formed at the boundary of the P and N doped regions.
  • the depletion region at the PN junction overlaps with the center of a guided optical mode propagating through the waveguide.
  • Each of the doped regions can have a stepped or gradient doping profile within it or several doped sections with different doping concentrations.
  • FIG. 1 is a simplified concept illustration of the Montgomery et al. SISCAP modulator (also referred to hereinafter as an SOI-based modulator).
  • SOI- based optical modulator 1 comprises a doped silicon layer 2 (typically, polysilicon and referred to at times hereafter as the "gate" layer) disposed in an overlapped arrangement with an oppositely-doped portion of a sub-micron thick silicon surface layer 3 (often referred to in the art as an SOI layer, or the "body” layer of the modulator structure).
  • SOI layer 3 is shown as the surface layer of a conventional SOI structure, which further includes a silicon substrate 4 and buried oxide layer 5.
  • a relatively thin dielectric layer 6 (such as, for example, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride or the like) is disposed within the overlapped region between SOI layer 3 and doped silicon layer 2.
  • the overlapped area defined by silicon layer 2, dielectric 6 and SOI layer 3 defines the "active region' of optical modulator 1. Free carriers will accumulate and deplete on either side of dielectric 6 as a function of the voltages applied to SOI layer 3 (V 3 ) and/or doped silicon layer 2 (V 2 ).
  • the modulation of the free carrier concentration results in changing the effective refractive index in the active region, thus introducing phase modulation of an optical signal propagating along a waveguide defined by the active region (the optical signal propagating along the y-axis, in the direction perpendicular to the paper).
  • the contacts to layers 2 and 3 are spaced from the active region of the modulator, as shown in FIG. 1 .
  • a first contact region 7 (such as a silicide region) is disposed over an outer portion of layer 2, and a second contact region 8 is similarly disposed over an outer portion of layer 3.
  • FIG. 2 illustrates this particular embodiment, showing a high dopant concentration area N+ within doped gate layer 2 in association with contact region 7 and a high dopant concentration area P+ within doped body layer 3 in association with contact region 8.
  • FIG. 3 is a typical C-V curve for the device shown in FIG. 2 .
  • R equivalent resistance
  • C capacitance
  • the present invention relates to a high speed silicon-based optical modulator and, more particularly, to a high speed silicon-based optical modulator with control of the dopant profiles in the body and layers of the device to reduce the series resistance without incurring substantial optical power loss.
  • the present invention provides a silicon-based optical modulating device as defined in the appended claims.
  • the portions of the gate and body layers between the high-doped contact area and the lightly-doped active area are formed to exhibit a dopant concentration level between that of the contact area and active area. It is also possible to modify the dopant profile in only one of the layers (i.e., in only the gate layer or only the body layer).
  • the dopant profiles are modified in the horizontal "wing" portions of each layer. These wing portions may be uniformly doped at an intermediate value between the active region and the contact region. Alternatively, a wing portion may be formed to exhibit a graded dopant profile, decreasing in dopant concentration from the contact area to the active region. The graded profile allows for the implant dose to be higher in the area where the optical intensity is lower, and then decrease as the optical intensity becomes stronger (i.e., approaches the active region). Generally speaking, the dopant profile may track the inverse of the optical intensity profile along the wing portion of the layer.
  • the dopant profiles are modified in the vertical portions of the gate and body layers outside the active region of the SISCAP modulator. Again, these regions may be doped to a uniform intermediate value, or doped in a graded manner, with the highest dopant concentration being at the area furthest from the center of the active region (with the lower optical signal intensity). Indeed, in one instance, the dopant profile may be configured to be the inverse of the optical intensity profile evaluated in the vertical direction at the center of the active region.
  • a combination of these two different modifications of the dopant profiles may be used in combination, specifically tailoring the dopant profiles of the gate and body layers to best adjust the balance between high speed operation and optical signal confinement.
  • a key in increasing the bandwidth of the SISCAP optical modulator is the ability to reduce the series resistance of the device while not increasing the optical loss to unacceptable levels. This goal is achieved in accordance with the present invention by modifying the implant dose in the intermediate portions of the gate and body layers between the active region (where modulation and propagation of the optical signal occurs) and the contact regions.
  • FIG. 5 illustrates a portion of a SISCAP optical modulator 10 formed in accordance with the present invention to include a modified dopant profile.
  • gate layer 2 is defined as including an outer-most contact portion 2-C and an active region 2-A in the center of the device (i.e., the active region), where carrier modulation occurs. Between these two regions, is an "intermediate" portion 2-1 which, in the prior art, was uniformly doped with the active region and resulted in adding to the series resistance of the device and impacting its performance at high speeds.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates a typical optical intensity profile of a prior art arrangement.
  • intermediate gate region 2-1 is fabricated to have a dopant concentration less than the dopant concentration of contact region 2-C, but greater than the dopant concentration in active region 2-A.
  • 2-C has a dopant concentration on the order of 10 19 cm -3 and 2-A has a dopant concentration on the order of 10 17 cm -3 , where the concentration of region 2-1 then falls between these values.
  • body layer 3 of modulator 10 is defined as having three regions: active region 3-A, intermediate region 3-1 and contact region 3-C.
  • intermediate region 3-I is formed to exhibit a dopant concentration between the values of regions 3-C and 3-A. This increase in dopant concentrations in intermediate regions 2-1 and 3-1 will lower the series resistance of modulator 10 and allow it to operate at higher speeds than the prior art configurations.
  • the modified dopant concentrations should not exceed the highly-doped regions used for contact, since the presence of a high dopant concentration would lead to increased optical absorption (hence, optical loss).
  • the amount of optical loss is related to the overlap integral of the optical modal field with the dopant concentration. Therefore, where the optical field is weak, an increase in dopant concentration has little impact on the overall optical loss, allowing for the resistance to be decreased without significantly impacting the strength of the propagating optical signal. Conversely, where the optical field is larger (such as in the active region), it remains desirable to keep the dopant concentration to a minimum to avoid absorption and thus minimize loss.
  • each portion may be uniformly doped at a suitable level between the values of the contact and active regions.
  • a "graded" dopant profile may be utilized, the greater dopant concentration being at the interface with the associated contact region and then decreasing in value until reaching the interface with the action region.
  • the dopant concentration is the greatest in the area where the optical intensity is the lowest (i.e., next to the contact region) and then decreases as the optical intensity within the region becomes stronger.
  • the use of a graded dopant profile is considered to be preferred alternative in terms of a trade-off between reducing the series resistance and maintaining a sufficient optical signal confinement in the active region.
  • the series resistance of the SISCAP modulator structure is reduced, allowing for the operating speed to be increased without incurring significant signal loss.
  • FIG. 7 An alternative embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 7 , where in this case a portion of gate layer 2 above the active region (shown as “upper” region 2-U in FIG. 7 ) and a portion of body layer 3 below the active region (shows as “lower” region 3-L in FIG. 7 ) are similarly doped at an intermediate concentration level between that of the contact regions and the active regions.
  • these region would be “lightly doped” in a manner similar to the active region, where these "upper” and “lower” regions of lightly-doped silicon impact the series resistance of the prior art modulating device.
  • the series resistance of the SISCAP modulator will be reduced and the operating speed increased.
  • upper region 2-U and lower region 3-L may be uniformly doped at an intermediate level, or may exhibit a graded dopant concentration.
  • the "vertical" dopant profile of the embodiment of FIG. 7 may be essentially the inverse of the optical intensity profile shown in FIG. 8 , which is a "vertical" optical intensity profile, taken along line A-A' of FIG. 7 .
  • both “horizontal” and “vertical” modifications in the dopant profiles of gate layer 2 and body layer 3 may be utilized to best tailor the degree of optical confinement that can be achieved, while lowering the resistance in both of these "horizontal” and “vertical” areas. Indeed, it is possible to modify the dopant profile in only one region of either the gate or body layer "outside" of the active region and see an improvement in operating speed over the prior art. Various combinations of the dopant modifications, profile indexes, and the like are considered to fall within the scope of the present invention as defined by the claims appended hereto.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Optics & Photonics (AREA)
  • Nonlinear Science (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
  • Optical Modulation, Optical Deflection, Nonlinear Optics, Optical Demodulation, Optical Logic Elements (AREA)
  • Light Receiving Elements (AREA)
  • Crystals, And After-Treatments Of Crystals (AREA)

Claims (3)

  1. Dispositif de modulation optique à base de silicium comportant :
    une couche de corps en silicium (3) dopée pour exhiber un premier type de conductivité ;
    une couche de grille en silicium (2) dopée pour exhiber un deuxième type de conductivité, la couche de grille en silicium (2) ayant une partie de chevauchement (2-A) disposée au moins en partie pour chevaucher une partie de chevauchement (3-A) de la couche de corps en silicium (3) pour définir une zone contiguë entre lesdites couches de corps et de grille en silicium (3, 2) ;
    une couche diélectrique mince disposée dans la zone contiguë entre lesdites parties de chevauchement (3-A, 2-A) des couches de corps et de grille en silicium (3, 2), la combinaison desdites parties de chevauchement (3-A, 2-A) des couches de corps et de grille en silicium (3, 2) avec la couche diélectrique relativement mince intercalée définissant une région active du dispositif de modulation optique où la modulation de porteuses se produit ;
    un premier contact électrique couplé à une partie de contact extérieure (2-C) de la couche de grille en silicium (2) ; et
    un deuxième contact électrique couplé à une partie de contact extérieure (3-A) de la couche de corps en silicium (3), dans lequel, lors de l'application d'un signal électrique au niveau des premier et deuxième contacts électriques, des porteuses libres s'accumulent, se dissipent ou s'inversent dans les zones contiguës des parties de chevauchement (3-A, 2-A) des couches de corps et de grille en silicium (3, 2) des deux côtés de la couche diélectrique mince, de telle sorte qu'une intensité optique d'un signal optique se propageant le long d'un guide d'ondes défini par la région active effectue un chevauchement avec la zone de modulation de concentration de porteuses libres dans la région active dudit dispositif de modulation optique, dans lequel les parties de chevauchement (2-A, 3-A) des couches de corps et de grille en silicium (3, 2) sont dopées pour exhiber une concentration de dopant la plus faible dans la région active et les parties de contact extérieures (3-C, 2-C) des couches de corps et de grille en silicium (3, 2) sont dopées pour exhiber une concentration de dopant la plus élevée, avec au moins l'une des couches de corps et de grille en silicium (3, 2), caractérisé par ailleurs par l'exhibition d'une concentration de dopant intermédiaire dans une région intermédiaire (3-I, 2-I) entre la région de chevauchement respective (3-A, 2-A) et la partie de contact extérieure respective (3-C, 2-C), dans lequel la région intermédiaire (3-I, 2-I) comporte une concentration de dopant qui diminue en valeur depuis la région de contact respective (3-C, 2-C) jusqu'à la partie de chevauchement respective (3-A, 2-A), dans lequel la concentration de dopant est en rapport inverse relativement à l'intensité optique dans la région intermédiaire (3-I, 2-I).
  2. Dispositif de modulation optique à base de silicium selon la revendication 1, dans lequel la région intermédiaire (2-I) est dans la couche de grille en silicium (2).
  3. Dispositif de modulation optique à base de silicium selon la revendication 1, dans lequel la région intermédiaire (3-I) est dans la couche de corps en silicium (3).
EP11753780.3A 2010-03-10 2011-02-22 Régulation des profils du dopant pour des modulateurs optiques en silicium à grande vitesse Not-in-force EP2545401B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US31235010P 2010-03-10 2010-03-10
US13/029,342 US8363986B2 (en) 2010-03-10 2011-02-17 Dopant profile control for high speed silicon-based optical modulators
PCT/US2011/025672 WO2011112346A2 (fr) 2010-03-10 2011-02-22 Régulation des profils du dopant pour des modulateurs optiques en silicium à grande vitesse

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EP2545401A2 EP2545401A2 (fr) 2013-01-16
EP2545401A4 EP2545401A4 (fr) 2014-03-05
EP2545401B1 true EP2545401B1 (fr) 2018-08-15

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US8363986B2 (en) * 2010-03-10 2013-01-29 Mark Webster Dopant profile control for high speed silicon-based optical modulators
US9766484B2 (en) 2014-01-24 2017-09-19 Cisco Technology, Inc. Electro-optical modulator using waveguides with overlapping ridges
CN106154591A (zh) * 2015-03-23 2016-11-23 中兴通讯股份有限公司 一种pn结
US9523870B2 (en) * 2015-04-07 2016-12-20 Futurewei Technologies, Inc. Vertical PN silicon modulator
TW201734581A (zh) * 2016-03-28 2017-10-01 源傑科技股份有限公司 光調變器
FR3054926B1 (fr) * 2016-08-08 2018-10-12 Commissariat A L'energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives Procede de fabrication d'un modulateur des pertes de propagation et de l'indice de propagation d'un signal optique
CN110431475B (zh) 2017-01-18 2023-09-19 新飞通光电公司 用于基于半导体的mzm调制器的相位匹配的光波传播和rf波传播的方法和装置
CN117930530A (zh) 2018-01-26 2024-04-26 希尔纳公司 具有优化的掺杂分布和不同过渡区域厚度的硅基调制器
US10969546B2 (en) 2018-11-21 2021-04-06 Cisco Technology, Inc. Electro-optic modulator with monocrystalline semiconductor waveguides
US11036069B2 (en) 2019-03-18 2021-06-15 Cisco Technology, Inc. Optical modulator using monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon
US11860417B2 (en) 2019-09-09 2024-01-02 Cisco Technology, Inc. Precision spacing control for optical waveguides

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Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
WO2011112346A3 (fr) 2012-04-19
CN102782544A (zh) 2012-11-14
US20110222812A1 (en) 2011-09-15
EP2545401A2 (fr) 2013-01-16
EP2545401A4 (fr) 2014-03-05
WO2011112346A2 (fr) 2011-09-15
CN102782544B (zh) 2015-07-29
US8363986B2 (en) 2013-01-29

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